"The Pulse" -- #100 / The Money Cycle

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Bank Street Group and CapM opened their applications. 99 firms are recruiting for SA 2026

• FT 2026: No new updates. 2 firms are actively recruiting for FT 2026  

• If you need some interview support or just need a place to vent, check out our Coaching Program: Coaching for banking, consulting, and buyside recruiting | The Pulse. 95%+ of those coached for the summer 2025 recruiting season received offers!

New SA 2026 Applications:

• Bank Street Group: TMT-focused boutique (SA 2026)

• CapM: Boutique M&A (SA 2026)

New FT 2026 Applications:

• None

See below to gain access to our premium database, updated weekly, which houses the application processes for over 300+ banks/consulting/buyside firms! Gain an edge over everyone else by not having to spend countless hours tracking applications and deadlines.

Consulting:

Where We’re At:

• McKinsey and Bain released their full-time and summer analyst roles last week. There are 10 applications open. We are still early in the application process–more will be released in the late spring and early summer.

SA 2026 released apps:

• McKinsey - Summer Business Analyst (SA 2026)

• Bain - Associate Consultant Intern (SA 2026)

FT 2026 released apps:

• McKinsey - Business Analyst (FT 2026)

• Bain - Associate Consultant (FT 2026)

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Carl Marks & Co. opened its app this week. Currently 94 buyside firms are recruiting for SA 2026 seats 

New SA 2026 released apps:

• Carl Marks & Co.: Distressed credit hedge fund (SA 2026)

The database is updated weekly and contains 300+ Investment Banking and Consulting internships/full-time positions along with:

• Interview tips for specific companies

• Interview prep material

• Applications and deadlines linked so that you can apply with one click

• Insider information about the application process

• Professionals to network with

• Buyside deadlines, interview prep, and people to network with for the sweatiest of students

We send the updated dataset every week with the latest banking and consulting job postings. We released our 100th update today.

Students we have been helping have already landed roles at Blackstone, Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Citi, and Solomon.

To get access to the database and the weekly updates, you make a one-time investment of $65 Credit Card / Debit Card: (ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com) that grants you annual access to the updated database (please reach out for additional payment options). If you don’t find our services helpful, we simply ask for feedback on an area we can improve upon and will refund your $65.

This is a small investment for a huge payout when you secure your dream offer!

Premium Database——>Database for banking, consulting and buyside roles | The Pulse 

Market Update:

The Money Cycle

First of all, I can’t believe I’ve been writing The Pulse for over 100 weeks. Crazy! Our growth has been even crazier and I can’t thank you all enough…especially the real OGs who read our market updates <3.

Back to the program. I’m sick of fucking tariffs. Up, down, left, right it’s been mind-numbing to follow. No one has an answer whether this shit is going to work or not. So, let’s talk about something more important - corporate profit margins.

The more money companies make, the more people are employed, the more people spend, and the more money companies make….you see the wheel here. If you can’t, then peep the image below:

There is no clear start and end point here. It’s a little bit of the ‘chicken or the egg’ when considering if corporate profit margins are the lead to support spending or if spending is the lead to support corporate profit margins. We are not going to solve that problem.

However, what I will discuss is how a). corporate profit margins, b). employment, and c). spending are all intertwined. We will also review where these metrics are today and assess what current events may impact these in the near future. Let’s go!

Consumer Spending:

Consumer spending marks 66% of U.S. GDP. Over the last 100 weeks, we have written multiple pieces about how resilient the consumer is. Consumers buy shit from businesses, businesses make money and look to grow, businesses hire more people, people make more money and buy more shit. It’s incredible. There are two technical drivers that fuel spending: making more REAL money and making more paper money (the wealth effect).

Real money = direct deposits from your employer or owning a business or scamming people for premium CSGO skins or selling drugs. Anyways, money in the pocket. Cash in the bank = real money. You can’t buy anything without real money unless you’re margining all of your less liquid assets. The good thing is that people are making more REAL money.

Wage growth is still outpacing inflation at a healthy clip.

Paper money ‘the wealth effect’ is feeling rich due to asset appreciation. We wrote about the wealth effect here: "The Pulse" -- #92 / The Wealth Effect. People feel like they have more money when the value of their assets rise. However, asset values have volatility and do not only rise, but also fall… sometimes in a short period of time as we all experienced in the market lately.

REAL money is up and the wealth effect is up (on a multi-year lookback) = consumer spending has been robust. However, tariff-induced inflation shock will erode some of the margin between wage growth and inflation; therefore eroding REAL money. Also, the wealth effect is already reversing due to greater market volatility. Both of these factors are not projected to move back into the positive direction over the next year. This is an organic headwind for consumer spending.

Corporate Profit Margins:

Now, we get to corporate profit margins. There are two big hits here: a). foreign business is disrupted at the moment and b). pass-through expenses may not be possible in an environment with a negative outlook for consumer spending. Those factors are headwinds to corporate profit margins.

Also, corporate profit margins are near their peak at ~11.14% blended across different sectors of public companies. I was surprised to see this. If you believe in mean reversion, then this chart tells you that corporate profit margins were already destined for a correction…even before the latest tariff effects.

Maybe next week I’ll chat more about the corporate profit margin trend throughout history.

Let’s go ahead and stack this alongside the unemployment chart.

Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that unemployment increases alongside a decrease in corporate profit margins (for the old heads, 2008 tracks the same as 2020 for both charts). Companies look to fire people when shit starts hitting the fan. Firing people is an easy solution to try and retain profitability. Sadly, firing people is much easier than renegotiating leases or selling equipment.

Now, let’s revisit our earlier point about REAL money. It gets harder to make REAL money and buy more shit when you do not have a job. This leaves us in a bad position when looking at the near future where consumer spending is rocky, corporate profit margins may encounter stress, and hiring could also feel the heat.

Our savior, as always, will be potential rate cuts (ig you can also cross your fingers for free money from the government lol).

Disclosure: Nothing written here is financial advice or should be used for investment decisions.

What to do After a Consulting Interview (or any interview):

After you finish an interview, you're probably relieved to be done, especially if it was a case interview. However, you aren’t done yet. There are a few things you should do after an interview to enhance your chance of success.

Common sense here, but critical.

1. Send a thank-you email. This is essential and could be costly if not done correctly. You shouldn’t just send a generic email to your interviewer, as this shows a lack of thoughtfulness and more of a “check the box” mentality. Rather, make the email personalized by mentioning what you discussed specifically in that interview. This shows that you are thoughtful and helps build rapport.

   Thank you emails should be sent within a day of the interview. You can and should wait a few hours. However, sending an email more than a day after the interview does more harm than good. Remember to keep the email brief but well-written.

2. Reflect on what went well and what went poorly. Interviewing is not fun, but you should use it as a learning opportunity. My first interview went terribly, but I did learn a ton and was better because of it. Review your answers to specific questions and practice them again so that next time you can crush it. If possible, practice with a friend and get their honest feedback.

As a note, you should accept offers to interview whenever they present themselves. These are opportunities to get more reps in, even if you’re not sure you want the role. If you do the above, you will make the most of interviewing and have a great shot at landing a consulting seat.

Going Forward:

Are you starting your banking / consulting FT job this summer?

We are carefully rolling out our Buyside Associate prep solutions. This will be the best tool to land a job in PE, PC, HF, or VC / GE after your analyst stint. Please shoot us an email @[email protected], if you’d like to be a part of our first cohort—services will be 100% free.

Please reach out to us with any questions about recruiting or if you’re interested in meeting the team! ([email protected])

We are happy to chat, review resumes, or help set up a coaching session

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“The Pulse” #100

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